Pregame chatter: The Yankees will play with 24 tonight as Wilson Betemit won’t arrive until tomorrow. … Alex Rodriguez, as you may have heard, is one home run away from 500. … Andy Phillips has an 11-game hit streak.

A few other things I wanted to pass along:

Brian Cashman said emphatically that Joba Chamberlain will be a starter come 2008. He is close to his innings cap this season, so using him as a reliever makes sense in that regard.

Doug Mientkiewicz will have an MRI Thursday to determine if he can start swinging and throwing.

Jason Giambi is still with Class A Tampa but will move up to Trenton or Scranton soon.

Joe Torre’s charity golf tournament in Westchester raised $400,000 yesterday. Sandy Koufax attended and Torre told a nice story of how Ron Guidry had never met him before and how thrilled he was to meet the Hall of Famer.

“Gator was like a little kid,” Torre said.

I ran into Guidry in the clubhouse and asked him about it. “Man,” he said. “It was great. He was a lot of fun to talk to.”

Lots to write tonight but I’ll get post some updates when I get a chance.

The Pirates traded for Matt Morris and picked up his entire contract. Why, nobody is sure.

UPDATE, 9:00 p.m.: Here’s the logo for the All-Star Game:

UPDATE, 9:03 p.m.: It seems the Yankees could have gotten rid of Krazy Kyle. Atlanta was willing to trade the Yankees Bob Wickman but wanted all $7.1 million of Farnsworth’s salary. That was a no deal for Cashman.

Meanwhile, Cashman was praising Ross Ohlendorf, saying he hit 97 in a recent relief outing and could be somebody in the mix.

Tell you what, for years people have been saying the Yankees need to get younger. I agree with them. Younger player have hunger and passion and they need some doses of that. Using Chamberlain, Ramirez, Ohlendorf and Hughes down the stretch will be pretty interesting to watch. Gagne is good, but giving up Melky or Kennedy for 20 innings makes no sense.

UPDATE: 9:25 p.m.: If Hideki Matsui is not the AL Player of the Month in July there should be an investigation.

UPDATE, 9:36 p.m.: To quote the late, great Jack Buck, I don’t believe what I just saw. Kyle Farnsworth just tossed a 1-2-3 inning. That’s No. 5 of the season out of 45 appearances.

UPDATE, 9:47 p.m.: The eight home runs matches a franchise record set on June 28, 1939. It’s impossible to believe that seven Yankees could homer and none be Alex Rodriguez.

UPDATE, 9:58 p.m.: Indians lose, Yanks will be 3 down in the wild card. They will be 15-6 since the break (.714). Take another from Chicago then two from Kansas City and the Yankees will have done exactly what they needed to.

UPDATE, 10:01 p.m.: They’ve started playing again in Sarasota. Jason Giambi is 1 for 3 with a walk.